Farm Bill running out of time – preventing delays is key

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE), a member of the Senate Ag Committee, admits that passing a Farm Bill in 2023 is a steep challenge.

“Things would have to come together pretty quickly, the House has to pass one, the Senate has to pass one, our bills are not going to agree, I don’t believe.” 

Nebraska’s Congressional delegation visited the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s East Campus on Monday, to gather additional information from farmers and ranchers. As for the timing of the bill, the Nebraska Republican says she is not ruling out the possibility of an extension of the current farm bill.

“I’m not, I’m not, you know, we’re into late June, we’ll see what happens. We don’t have that many more days left before the August work period.” 

Fischer says the Senate bill by choice and necessity will be more bipartisan.

“But the Senate has come together before. Last time the Farm Bill came up, we had 96 yes votes on it. So, I’m looking forward to getting it done. We’ve had a lot of hearings, and just have been working for the last three, four years on legislation that I want included in the Farm Bill as well like dealing with precision agriculture, looking at getting those disaster aid payments out earlier to our producers when they need those, making sure that crop insurance is there, all the safety nets.”